Character Creation - Shadowrun 5th Edition

All characters start with 25 Karma they will use later to improve themselves.

The links below provide snapshots of character types you are most likely to find in the shadows. This is just a starting point, the one you create will be uniquely yours.

You may start with an idea of what sort of character you want to play and some basic background concepts. The character may be an ex-soldier from a national government looking to use her combat skills on the streets. Or a former corporate headhunter forced out of the megacorporation by an ambitious rival and now using his negotiating savvy and deal-making skills to survive the shadows. There are second-generation runners, born to the life and learning the skills of the trade from their SINless parents. It’s not unusual for a bounty hunter who collects pelts of paranormal critters or tracks down fugitives to engage in a little shadowrunning to supplement his income. The character may have grown up in a street gang, and he sees shadowrunning as a way to get out of the gutter. Or the character may have just gotten out of jail and be eager to see what she can do with the skills she learned and the connections she made on the inside.

Character generation is based upon a priority system (see table below). There are five aspects needing a priority: Metatype, Attributes, Magic or Resonance, Skills, and Resources. Likewise, there are five levels of priority: A (highest), B, C, D, and E (lowest). The Priority Table shows what you can get for each aspect at each priority level. By the end, you will have assigned a priority level to each aspect, with no duplications (i.e., you cannot have two B priorities). During character creation, and throughout the game, you can improve various things using Karma as well.

You do not have to assign all your priorities right now, but you need to start thinking about the kind of character you want to play and what you will have to spend to build it. For example, if you want to play a troll, you have to assign a priority high enough in the Metatype column to allow trolls. If you have in mind a very skillful character, make sure to put a good priority in Skills. Perhaps your character is wealthy, and a lot of his "talent" comes from what he has bought. You would need a high priority in Resources.

Start jotting down some ideas on your character's background and history, and that will help you make priority decisions later.

There are five main metatypes: dwarf, elf, human, ork, and troll. Each receives certain advantages, and possibly disadvantages. Choice of metatype also impacts minimum and maximum physical and mental abilities. Refer to the Metatype Attribute Table to see these various aspects of metatypes.

Once you have an idea of the metatype you want to play, go back to the Priority Table and consider what priority you have to assign to metatype to be able to play the metatype you want. Notice the numbers in parentheses; these are the points you can assign to special attributes: Edge, Magic, and Resonance. Magic is important to any kind of magician. Resonance is utilized by technomancers. Edge is utilized by all characters, and you can spend all your points here if you are neither a magician nor technomancer. You can later spend Karma to increase these as well. Normally, the maximum is 6 (humans can have 7 in Edge) unless you purchase special qualities with Karma later.

All characters begin with their metatype's minimum attribute levels (see Metatype Attribute Table). For example, a dwarf has Body 3, Agility 1, Reaction 1, Strength 3, Willpower 2, Logic 1, Intuition 1, and Charisma 1 at no cost.

Set a priority for your Attributes and begin assigning all of the points from your choice to increase your attributes at a cost of 1 point per 1 increase. You may only have 1 Mental or Physical attribute at its highest level during character creation; special attributes of Edge, Magic, and Resonance are not included in this limitation.

Keep in mind that attribute choices will later impact several things in game including Initiative (Intuition + Reaction) and inherent limits (see pg. 46 and Final Calculations Table below). Technomancers have limits for their Living Persona in the Matrix (pg. 249) and magicians have astral projection limits (pg. 314).

Players who want to be magicians or technomancers should set a priority for Magic or Resonance; otherwise, put Priority E for this aspect.

Qualities help round out your character's personality while also providing a range of benefits or penalties. There are two types of Qualities—Positive Qualities, which provide gameplay bonuses and require an expenditure of Karma; and Negative Qualities, which impose gameplay penalties but also give bonus Karma the player can spend in other areas.

As mentioned earlier, the character starts the character creation process with 25 Karma, and some of that can be spent to buy Qualities. Players can spend all of it, some of it, or none of it based on what they want their character to have and how much Karma they want to save for later. Additionally, at creation characters can only possess at most 25 Karma worth of Positive Qualities and 25 Karma worth of Negative Qualities.

After character creation, Positive Qualities can be purchased during game play, while Negative Qualities may be awarded to the character by the gamemaster based on events that take place in game. Negative Qualities can be bought off using Karma during game play. See Character Advancement rules (p. 103) for more about purchasing Positive Qualities or buying off Negative ones.

When purchasing a Positive or Negative quality, note the quality on the character sheet along with any bonuses or negative modifiers to skills in parentheses next to the appropriate skills or attributes.

Skills are broken into three types: Active, Knowledge, and Language.

When you set a priority for the Skill aspect, you will see two numbers in the column separated by a "/". You spend the first number to purchase Active skills (optionally Knowledge and Language too) at the cost of 1 point per 1 skill rating.

The second number can only be used to purchase skill groups. When purchased, a skill group gives you the same rating for all the associated skills in the group. At this point, you cannot raise the rating of an individual skill in a group, although you can during the game later.

In character generation, the highest you can raise a skill is 6 (7 if you purchase the Aptitude quality). During game play, this can be raised to 12 (13 with Aptitude).

All points must be spent and cannot be saved. Make sure you do not duplicate individual skills with ones in groups.

You may also purchase specializations, which is a part of a skill in which you invest special time and interest. For example, you might have the Blades skill with a knife specialization, which gives you a +2 dice pool bonus to skill tests involving the area of specialization. This costs 1 skill point, and you may not have more than one specialization per skill during character creation. You may gain more during game play. Specializations cannot be purchased for entire skill groups, and if you use Karma to gain a specialization on a grouped skill, you permanently break the grouping.

Restricted Skills

Magic- and Resonance-based skills require you have either a Magic or Resonance attribute rating. Without the appropriate attribute, you cannot learn these skills.

Aspected magicians can only use one category of Magic skills (Sorcery, Conjuring, or Enchanting), while magicians and mystic adepts can use the entire range. Deckers cannot use Resonance-based skills (Compiling, Decompiling, and Registering).

Knowledge and Language Skills

You receive (Intuition rating + Logic rating) x2 free skill points to spend only on Knowledge and Language skills. Spending 1 point gives 1 rating in a skill. In addition, you receive one language as a native skill designated with an "N" on your sheet. Knowledge skills are either Academic, Interests, Professional, or Street, and which determines the related attribute used when rolling skill tests.

Your final priority to assign is to resources. This determines the amount of money you have to outfit your character. You may only retain up to 5,000 nuyen for your starting cash. Anything else unspent is lost.

There are some restrictions to buying gear, especially with cyberware and bioware. Each attribute rating may only gain up to a +4 bonus. If the attribute is not at its natural maximum, it can still be increased normally, but nothing can raise the attribute above your metatype's natural maximum +4.

During character creation, you cannot purchase equipment with an availability rating higher than 12, and the maximum device rating is 6. All gear is subject to gamemaster approval regardless if the gear falls into these restrictions.

Cyberware and Bioware

Cyberware is technology implanted in the body to enhance or replace existing systems. Bioware is custom living tissue implanted to give options nature never intended. Tampering with your body costs Essence; cyberware generally costs more Essence (i.e., is more invasive) than bioware.

Be aware cyberware and bioware can replace natural abilities. For example, if an elf replaces his natural eyes (which have low-light vision) with cybereyes, unless he purchases the low-light option in the cybereyes, he loses this ability. Likewise, orthoskin bioware replaces a troll's dermal armor.

Cyberware and bioware comes in four grades: standard, alphaware, betaware, and deltaware. Only standard and alphaware is available at character creation.

Few magic users or technomancers utilize cyberware or bioware because reductions in Essence reduce Magic and Resonance, and thus their effectiveness.

Attribute boosts from this technology does not affect things like Knowledge skill tests or Contacts, however things like Initiative and Inherent Limits are modified. When calculating the Social limit using Essence, round your remaining Essence up to the nearest whole number before calculating the limit.

Augmentations are noted on the character sheet in parentheses after the natural score. For example, a character with a natural Strength rating of 4 and muscle augmentation 2 bioware should be noted as Strength 4 (6).

Lifestyle

Lifestyle determines how the character lives and their monthly expenses so that they can survive. Is the character a squatter in an abandoned building? Does he survive by dumpster diving? Does the character live in a rundown apartment? Or has the character found a way to own her own home? Depending on the answers to these questions, the character may have a Street, Squatter, Low, Middle, High, or Luxury lifestyle. More information on lifestyles can be found on p. 373.

Starting Nuyen

No more than 5,000 nuyen (or less) of any unspent money from the funds available for character creation carries over to game play. The rest of the character's starting nuyen is determined by the lifestyle the player has purchased for his character and the formula for that lifestyle specified by the Starting Nuyen Table. The player rolls the designated number of dice, then applies the modifier appropriate to their character's Lifestyle. The result is added to any funds the player has left over after buying gear.

This step is the player's last opportunity to polish her character before making the final calculations. By this time the player should have a pretty good idea of her character’s backstory and what she wants her character to look like. Any remaining Karma can now be invested in smoothing out any rough edges, picking up or improving skills, buying additional spells, acquiring bound spirits, bonding foci to be used at the start of the game, purchasing contacts, etc. Refer to the Additional Purchases and Restrictions table to note any special restrictions on purchasing items with Karma. If a player wishes to keep some Karma for use later in the game, she may do so, though the maximum carryover is 7 Karma. When raising skills and attributes, keep in mind the various restrictions of character creation: Only one attribute can be at the natural attribute limit, and gear is restricted to items with Device Ratings of 6 or less or an Availability of 12 or less. These rules still apply to when you are spending Karma.

When spending Karma for attributes or skills, refer to the rules for improving the character in the Character Advancement section (p. 103).

Contacts

Contacts are a vital part of a shadowrunner's life. Contacts sell illegal or hard-to-obtain items, alert runners to potential employment, know someone who knows someone who knows something the runner wants to know, or are knowledgeable about the layout of a heavily guarded corporate compound. Some contacts can supply substances runners are addicted too, fence stolen goods, and maybe, if they're loyal enough, bail the shadowrunner out of the Lone Star holding cell. Having a wide variety of Contacts can be a valuable investment. Every character receives free Karma to spend on their initial contacts. This Karma is equal to a Character's Charisma rating x 3.

Each Contact has a Connection and a Loyalty rating. Any Contacts a player buys must have a minimum rating of 1 in Connection and a minimum rating of 1 in Loyalty. Connection represents how much reach and influence a Contact has, both within the shadows and in the world at large, to get things done or to make things happen. Loyalty reflects how loyal the contact is to the runner and how much they'll endure without shattering whatever bond the two have. At Loyalty 1 or 2, the Contact has only a business relationship with the character. Any qualms they have about turning the runner in are tied to profits they may lose if the runner isn't around, not so much because of any close personal feelings. With a higher Loyalty rating, the Contact has a stronger and more personal relationship (i.e., friendship) with the character, and is more likely to take some risk or go out of his way to help the character. For specific rules on the use of Contacts, see p. 386.

In the final stage you should also flesh out the backstory for the character. Qualities, attribute ratings, and contacts provide a blueprint of who these characters are now. But what are their stories? Why are they shadowrunners? What aliases are they known by? How did they earn their street names? Their scars? What are their real names? Who are their friends? Their enemies? How old are they? If a character possesses a piece of gear that they cannot use right now, what is the story behind that? If they have cyberlimbs, was that by choice or out of necessity? The more interesting the background, the more possibilities for interesting role-playing scenarios that can add flavor and diversity to a game.

To make sure your character is ready to rock with a minimum of complication and hassle, here’s a checklist of things to remember when designing a shadowrunner.